Monday, March 22, 2010

Reflections from Bow Island

Once again the Teacher 2 Teacher Conference in Bow Island was fantastic. The greatest benefit is getting to see so many classroom teachers showing you how they integrate technology into their lessons. Not only that, but in a lot of cases you are getting new ideas for teaching the same material in your classroom.

I really enjoyed getting to hear and meet so many of the educational technologists whose blogs I've been reading and websites I've been visiting over the course of this school year. It was interesting to note that one of the speakers, Richard Byrne, still manages to teach a classroom full-time while traveling frequently to present at conferences.

Between Richard Byrne's session and a session with James Hollis I reached a simple conclusion. I need to blog more. And, I need to blog regularly. But what will I blog about? That remains to be seen.

Below is the first of what I hope will be many quick tip videos. I created this one with a handy free website called Screenr and a microphone. This one is about creating your own custom attendance page for your class using Smart Notebook. Sound clips can be found copyright-free from either Soundboard or Free Sound.

4 comments:

Thanks Andy! I appreciate that this video clip was short but clear and detailed and specific. I know you explained this to me at a PLC but then when I got home I had forgotten one step. I couldn't get it to work so I just said forget it. Now I can try it again when I have the time, like now.

I have now created an animated bunny page and am very proud if I do say so but with one exception. I cannot get my "weeking" #3 bunny sound attached. I downloaded it from soundboard but cannot get anything from there?? Would like to use it this week???

Hi Jan,It may depend on the type of file you downloaded. Notebook will only accept MP3 files. Some of the files on soundboard and other programs are WAV files. You could use a program called Format Factory which should be on your computer to convert the file, open it up in Audacity and choose export as MP3 (Mary knows how to do this) or go to this website: http://www.mediaconverter.org/ upload your file, choose next steps, select mp3 as an output format and download once its done!

Author:

I am currently in my first year as vice-principal of Rosemary School in Rosemary, Alberta, Canada. I enjoy learning about new technologies as well as educational leadership and their implications for the classroom. Twitter is where I go to learn. Through my blog, I try to share that learning with others.